The Story of a mad Man with a box series 6 (Doctor Who)

The Rebel Flesh Pt 1

[Corridor]

(A monastery cum castle on an island. Think St Michael's Mount, but a bit flatter and further from any shoreline.)
JIMMY: Lights.
(The lights come on and the two men and a woman walk forward. They are wearing protective clothing.)

[Acid room]

JIMMY: Lights. You know the drill, people. Plastic visors down and locked. Buzzer?
(Buzzer raises the lid on a large vat.)
JENNIFER: Reading of nine point seven.
JIMMY: Sounds a bit low for unrefined. How's the average?
JENNIFER: The acid potency stats have definitely dropped below the mean during the last quarter.
BUZZER: Prettier than a computer, isn't she?
JENNIFER: Give over, Buzz.
(Buzzer is standing on the edge of the vat when she gives him a nudge. He falls in.)
JENNIFER: Buzzer. Buzz.
JIMMY: Oh, great. Nice going, twinkle toes.
JENNIFER: I shouldn't have swung at him. Sorry, Buzz. My bad.
BUZZER: No, you're all right. Jimmy?
JIMMY: Well, no point carrying you back legless. Sorry, Buzzer. You're dead.
BUZZER: Well, this is a right pain in the armour. Heart's gone now.
JIMMY: Look, we'd best get off. Got to write this one up for the boss. Those suits cost a bomb. If I miss my boy's birthday filling out forms, I'll kill you again.
(Buzzer raises a farewell hand, which melts. Jennifer and Jimmy leave.)
JIMMY: Lights.

[Corridor]

JENNIFER: I'm looking at these readings, Jimmy, and the potency stats are way too low. We may have to take that read again. This thing is still jamming up on me.
BUZZER: So I think we'd better talk about what just happened back there. I could get compensation. I've seen the holo-ads. Had an accident in the workplace? Yeah, I have as it goes. I melted.
JIMMY: Let it go.
BUZZER: Just remember. When you're doing your report, it wasn't my fault. She took a swing at me.
JENNIFER: I never touched you. You've got two left feet, Buzzer.
BUZZER: I haven't got two left feet. Or any arms, neck, head, the chin. This body costs money, love.
JIMMY: Not as much as that acid suit.
BUZZER: Oh, lighten up. It's not like anyone was hurt.
(The version of Buzzer in the acid vat finally dissolves.)

[Tardis]

(Loud music reverberates through the Tardis. I'm told it is called Supermassive Black Hole by Muse. Whatever. Rory Isabella Ronald  and Amy are playing darts.)
AMY: Forty six. Rubbishy, rubbishy, rubbish.
RORY: Hello? It's a double top.
Isabella : Wrong side of the wire, mister.
RORY: You're on the oche, Red.
(The scanner still cannot decide whether Isabella is pregnant or not. The Doctor turns off the music.)
DOCTOR: Who wants fish and chips?
(Rory raises his hand.)
DOCTOR: I'll drop you all off. Take your time. Don't rush.
RONALD : Er, and you? Things to do. Things involving other things.
Isabella : Well, we'll stay with you. We'll do the other things.
DOCTOR: Nope.
AMY: Whatever you're up to, I'd personally like to be a part of it. What?
(A klaxon blares, then everyone gets thrown around.)
DOCTOR: Solar tsunami. Came directly from your sun. A tidal wave of radiation. Big, big, big.
RORY: Oh Doctor, my tummy's going funny.
DOCTOR: Well, the gyrator disconnected. Target tracking is out.
(The Tardis heads for Earth.)
DOCTOR: Assume the position!
(Amy Isabella Ronald  and Rory put their heads between their knees, then it all goes still.)
DOCTOR: Textbook landing.

[St John's Island]

DOCTOR: Behold, a cockerel! Love a cockerel.
(A weathervane.)
DOCTOR: And underneath, a monastery. Thirteenth century.
Isabella : Oh, we've gone all mediaeval.
RONALD : I'm not sure about that.
AMY: Really? Mediaeval expert are you?
RORY: No, it's just that I can hear Dusty Springfield.
(You Don't Have To Say You Love Me. The Doctor inspects a hole in the ground with a pipe running through it. The pipe is labelled Danger Corrosive.)
DOCTOR: These fissures are new. Solar tsunami sent out a huge wave of gamma particles. This is caused by a magnetic quake that occurs just before the wave hits.
Isabella : Well, the monastery's standing.
(The Doctor takes a snow globe out of his pocket and shakes it.)
DOCTOR: Yeah, for now.
RORY: Doctor, look.
DOCTOR: Yeah. It's a supply pipe. Ceramic inner lining. Something corrosive. They're pumping something nasty off this island to the mainland.
RONALD : My mum's a massive fan of Dusty Springfield.
DOCTOR: Who isn't? Right, let's go. Satisfy our rabid curiosity.

[Courtyard]

AMY: So where are these Dusty Springfield loving monks, then?
DOCTOR: I think we're here. This is it.
RORY: Doctor, what are you talking about? We've never been here before.
DOCTOR: Hmm?
Isabella : We came here by accident?
DOCTOR: Accident? Yes, I know. Accident.
RONALD : Ow!
DOCTOR: Acid. They're pumping acid off this island. That's old stuff. Fresh acid, you wouldn't have a finger.
TANNOY: Intruder alert. Intruder alert.
DOCTOR: There are people coming. Well, almost.
AMY: Almost coming?
DOCTOR: Almost people.
RORY: I think we should really be going.
Isabella : Come on!
RONALD : I'm telling you. When something runs towards you, it is never for a nice reason.

[Harness room]

(Buzzer and others are reclining in harnesses in the alcoves.)
AMY: What are all these harnesses for?
RORY: The almost people?
Isabella : What are they, prisoners, or are they meditating, or what?
DOCTOR: Well, at the moment they fall into the or what category.
TANNOY: Halt and remain calm.
DOCTOR: Well, we've halted. How are we all doing on the calm front?
JIMMY: Don't move!
BUZZER: Stay back, Jen. We don't know who they are.
JENNIFER: So let's ask them. Who the hell are you?
(Amy looks around at the same people in the harnesses.)
DOCTOR: Well, I'm the Doctor, and this is Amy Isabella Ronald and Rory, and it's all very nice, isn't it?
Isabella : Hold up. You're all. What are you all? Like identical twins?
(Two more people walk in wearing acid suits. The woman seems to be in charge.)
CLEAVES: This is an Alpha Grade industrial facility. Unless you work for the military or for Morpeth Jetson, you are in big trouble.
DOCTOR: Actually, you're in big trouble.
(He gets out the psychic paper.)
CLEAVES: Meteorological Department? Since when?
DOCTOR: Since you were hit by a solar wave.
CLEAVES: Which we survived.
DOCTOR: Just, by the look of it. And there's a bigger one on the way.
CLEAVES: Which we'll also survive. Dicken, scan for bugs.
BUZZER: Backs against the wall. Now.
DOCTOR: You're not a monastery, you're a factory. Twenty second century army-owned factory.
AMY: You're army?
CLEAVES: No, love. We're contractors, and you're trespassers.
DICKEN: It's clear, boss.
CLEAVES: All right, weatherman, your ID checks out. If there's another solar storm, what are you going to do about it? Hand out sunblock?
DOCTOR: I need to see your critical systems.
CLEAVES: Which one?
DOCTOR: You know which one.

[Flesh room]

(Another vat, this time filled with bubbling milky liquid.)
DOCTOR: And there you are.
CLEAVES: Meet the government's worst kept secret. The Flesh. It's fully programmable matter. In fact, it's even learning to replicate itself at the cellular level.
Isabella : Right. Brilliant. Lost.
CLEAVES: Okay. Once a reading's been taken, we can manipulate its molecular structure into anything. Replicate a living organism down to the hairs on its chinny chin chin. Even clothes. And everything's identical. Eyes, voice
DOCTOR: Mind, soul?
CLEAVES: Don't be fooled, Doctor. It acts like life but it still needs to be controlled by us, from those harnesses you saw.
RONALD : Wait, whoa. Hold it. So, you're Flesh now?
CLEAVES: I'm lying in a harness back in that chamber. We all are, except Jennifer here. Don't be scared. This thing, just like operating a forklift truck.
DOCTOR: You said it could grow. Only living things grow.
CLEAVES: Moss grows. It's no more than that. This acid is so dangerous we were losing a worker every week. So now we mine the acid using these doppelgangers. Or Gangers. If these bodies get burnt or fall in the acid
BUZZER: Then who the hell cares, right, Jen?
JENNIFER: Nerve endings automatically cut off like airbags being discharged. We wake up and get a new Ganger.
JIMMY: It's weird, but you get used to it.
CLEAVES: Jennifer, I want you in your Ganger. Get back to the harness.
(Jennifer leaves. The Doctor scans the Flesh.)
BUZZER: Hang on, what's he up to? What you up to, pal?
DOCTOR: Stop it. Strange. It was like for a moment there it was scanning me.
CLEAVES: Doctor.
(The Doctor's hand is pulled to the surface of the Flesh.)
CLEAVES: Get back, Doctor. Leave it alone.
(He finally yanks his hand back.)
DOCTOR: I understand.
AMY: Doctor? Are you all right?
DOCTOR: Incredible. You have no idea. No idea. I mean, I felt it in my mind. I reached out to it, and it to me.
CLEAVES: Don't fiddle with the money, Doctor.
DOCTOR: How can you be so blinkered? It's alive. So alive. You're piling your lives, your personalities directly into it.
(Bang, flash.)
DOCTOR: It's the solar storm. The first waves come in pairs. Pre-shock and fore-shock. It's close.
CLEAVES: Buzzer, we got anything from the mainland yet?
BUZZER: No, the comms are still too jammed with radiation.
CLEAVES: Okay. Then we'll keep pumping acid until the mainland says stop. Now why don't you stand back and let us impress you?